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The ATC journey continues. I have two granddaughters that are in their mid-20’s and they are very different people. One tall, like an Amazon, one smaller and delicate. Both brave and independent. My oldest granddaughter loves monkeys so I had to include a monkey in her ATC.

Collage 11 2014 ATC

Does the background look familiar? It is the kaleidoscopic background painted by Paul Signac when doing his portrait of Felix Fenellon. This painting was in a special exhibition at The Indianapolis Museum Art recently. It is amazing to see this painting in person. It shimmers!

My younger granddaughter is a free-spirit that has little fear and a big, bold, social personality. For her, I focused on travel, adventure and dance.

Ho! Ho! Ho! The Christmas ATC elf continues to play. These two interesting little ATC’s are for my two oldest grandsons. They are as different as their ATC’s. My oldest grandson is a farmer, has a lovely wife and three little daughters (his little spark plugs). His wife is very good at crafts and cooking and making a great home. Their ATC was inspired by the Raggedy Ann doll and was brought to completion when I found the faded flag. The two together give me a strong feeling of nostalgia and Americana. I loved this one.

Collage 10 2014

My younger grandson is in the Army, has been stationed in Germany and Afghanistan and is now living in Louisiana. He and his very patient wife, who has become a master at packing, finding new friends and being the master of flexibility, have one lovely little daughter who loves to be naked and a son due in a couple of weeks. Their ATC shows a lion – strong and proud. I wanted to create a feeling of courage and adventure.

I continue to create my Artist Trading Card collages for my family. I put them in their Christmas cards so they can collect original art. These are for my two nephews. One nephew is in the Army and is based near Washington, DC. The other is working in farming near my home. The source material is my usual – travel brochures, advertising flyers, magazines and catalogs. I’m learning to do a lot with “a little”. Can you guess who is pondering changes right now?

For all of those from the United States, I hope you had a wonderful, family fun-filled Thanksgiving and have recovered from our typical over indulgence. We had 26 family members at our dinner and it was quite lively (3 great-granddaughters under 6 years of age). I am blessed to have a wonderful family and we are each other’s best friends. I sincerely hope all of you are equally blessed in your own way.

I have completed the ATC’s for my sister’s two children. My niece is a kindred spirit – independent, adventurous and horse-loving. I wanted to give her something soft and beautiful to enjoy during her busy days working in advertising. I found this beautiful image of two geisha in a National Geographic Expeditions catalog, The red and white “rainbow” is actually the rim of a plate from a painting of food. I liked the vintage feel. The burgundy strip is brocade fabric from a clothing catalog and the background is from a painting of a nude surrounded by roses.

Collage 6 2014 ATC

My nephew recently completed his masters degree, took his first full time job (as an agronomist working in the farmlands east of Indianapolis) and married. I wanted to present the start of his life’s voyage as an adult, something indicating opportunity and smacking of adventure. The images came from my usual sources. I particularly loved the curve of the horns of the alpine sheep along side the billowing sails and the round pumpkin.

I am struggling with my next “Harmony” painting. I am working with yellow, orange and red and the red keeps overwhelming the painting. Right now I have a painting with freckles. I will keep trying to unify and create harmony.

I have been having fun with the ATC’s for my family. I have created the three collages for my three daughters (the first two were for my brother and sister). I’ve tried to make these whimsical and fun. The first, for my oldest daughter was a giggle to work on, I could not keep from smiling as I made it. The background is from an ad that is in many of the artist magazines right now and I think it is for markers or a book on zentangles, the polar bear is from the National Geographic Expeditions catalog, the bird is from a catalog with clothes and decorative arts and the “iceberg with the cherry on top” is from the cover of the Artist’s magazine. I was fascinated by the idea of a polar bear roaming an iceberg made of whipped cream floating on a tranquil turquoise sea!

Collage 3 2014 ATC

The collage for my second daughter got its background from a competition winner in the Artist’s magazine 2013 competition. It is a painting of a young girl seeming to be underwater with aquatic vegetation floating around her head – very surreal. The two different types of fish are from two different photos I found and the strip of blue is from the cover of a travel catalog showing blue tropical waters. You can barely see the features of the girl peaking out in a couple of places.

Collage 4 2014 ATC

For my third daughter I found a brilliant blue butterfly that dominates the ATC. The background is from a very attractive and brilliantly colored abstract painting in one of my magazines. It reminds me of aboriginal art from Australia. The blue strip is again of waves from a travel brochure and the leaves are cut from a green background which had interesting texture and color. I also added one little purple square from my first four ATC’s that I made for my friends. It appears to be a little cockeyed. Like me and my sense of humor?

I am really excited about my second ATC collage. The back ground is cut from a National Geographic catalog and is a sweater they sell. I loved the rich pattern and colors. I found the two beautiful butterflies in different places. One is from a National Geographic Expeditions booklet and the other is from a small ad in one of my art magazines.

Collage 2 2014 ATC

The rose is cut from somewhere that I can’t remember and may have been “extracted” from a group of flowers. (I’ve been searching and cutting and loosing track…) The long strip is from a clothing catalog and is a strip from a charcoal gray sweater. It added interesting back ground texture. It is fun to notice that I included a strip buttons running down the sweater in the background. They are almost invisible.

I am making good progress on ATC Christmas gifts for my family. I have headed in a new direction and have started making collages using patterns, colors, partial images from magazines, catalogs, pamphlets, travel procures. This idea was inspired by a beautiful background on the cover of the Artist’s Magazine. The background was a wallpaper that had beautiful color and design. It just jumped out and grabbed me! I combined it with a small painting of a single rose, a photograph of a zebra and a strip of color from an ad for sweaters. I tried to combine manmade and natural items and wanted a quirky, almost surrealist look. I’m going for FUN! I think it turned out very well…unlike my photo.